[Marxism] JAMEEL AND THE ISLAMIC MUSICAL DREAM

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

JAMEEL AND THE ISLAMIC MUSICAL DREAM: Local man hopes to turn classic poem
'Cloak' into the first American-Islamic musical

December 15, 2004

BY MARTIN F. KOHN
FREE PRESS THEATER CRITIC

 <http://www.freep.com/art/2004/dec/15/syed.jpg>
PATRICIA BECK/DFP

Jameel Syed, with the help of some friends, will be presenting "The Poem of
the Cloak" at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.

        
In September, entrepreneur Jameel Syed telephoned Ray Alcodray and asked him
to direct a play. It would be, Syed claimed, the first American-Islamic
musical in history.

Alcodray was pretty sure Syed was correct. An actor, playwright, director
and founder of the Dearborn-based Arab Theatrical Arts Guild, Alcodray is
Muslim. Given his background, if anyone can say authoritatively that there
has never before been an American-Islamic musical, it would be he.

Alcodray is also an automotive engineer, and his background both practical
and artistic prompted Alcodray to ask Syed a question:

"Do you have a script?"

Well, no, Syed said.

"That's your first problem," Alcodray told him.

But, Syed persisted, he already had a date booked for the show.

"That," said Alcodray, "is your second problem."

The date was -- as is -- March 17, 2005, Syed said, and the place, the Ford
Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn. Alcodray knew the space.
The Ford Center has a nice little black-box theater, a flexible, rectangular
space with no fixed stage and room for about 200 patrons in moveable chairs.
Alcodray has put on plays there himself.

No, Syed said. He was talking about the main theater at the Ford Center --
the one that holds an audience of 1,200 in plush-covered folding-seat
comfort.

That, Alcodray told Syed, might be your third problem.

Maybe so, Syed countered, but he'd already started selling tickets and had,
by that time, sold a third of all the seats. Not coincidentally, Syed heads
a marketing company in Auburn Hills called Fluid Visions.

"The guy's gutsy," Alcodray says.

Three months later, over breakfast at a Dearborn restaurant, Syed and
Alcodray delightedly talk about what happened next.

Alcodray said he'd consider directing the show if Syed, as producer, could
furnish him a script within six weeks. Syed, who had the basic concept in
mind, called upon Adeel Ahmad, whom he knew from their student days at the
University of Michigan. Ahmad is a physician doing his second year of
residency at New York University, but he majored in film and video studies.

Six weeks later, Ahmad's script was in Alcodray's hands.


'The Poem of the Cloak'


The play is called "The Poem of the Cloak," which is also the name of a poem
recognizable throughout Islam. A long poem in praise of the prophet
Muhammad, "The Poem of the Cloak" (in Arabic, "Qasidah al Burdah") was
written more than 700 years ago by an Egyptian, Imam Sharafuddin Busiri (c.
1211-1294).

An extraordinary story goes with the poem.

"Busiri became paralyzed. All his physicians had written him off and told
him he'd be paralyzed until he died," Syed says. He turns to his religion,
aspiring to improve his character as Islam prescribes. One day he composes
the poem, falls asleep and finds himself in the prophet's mosque, his poem
having reached Muhammad's ears.

Muhammad drapes his cloak over Busiri's legs. When Busiri awakens he finds
the cloak, and he is no longer paralyzed.

The poem and the story behind it figure strongly in the play, which is in
English and whose characters are contemporary American Muslims. "We want to
use the ancient piece in a modern context," Syed says.

There are four principal characters and five others, playwright Ahmad says
in a telephone interview from New York. The main characters are a man named
Syed; his two grown sons, Atif and Rizwan; and Amer, the family's doctor and
friend. Atif "went into medicine, he's a resident himself," Ahmad says.
Rizwan, the younger and more rebellious son, is a college student who wants
to go his own way and pursue a career in music.

The play begins after the funeral of Syed's wife and the young men's mother.
She had been the family peacekeeper. "All the tensions that were mediated
and dealt with by the mother come to the surface," Ahmad says. "The father
is left to deal with them. I wouldn't say he's inept, but he's not as
capable as the mother."

The major conflict, between the father and his independent-minded younger
son becomes so heated that the younger man leaves home.

Syed is diagnosed with a terminal illness, older son Atif assumes the role
of peacemaker, and Amer, the family doctor, brings the ancient poem to their
attention. The poem and its story remind everyone in the family of their
core values, Ahmad says, and help them to reconcile.


American Muslim identity


The playwright, producer and director all view the production as an
important step in putting a public face on American Muslims.

"As first-generation Muslim Americans we haven't had a lot of representation
in the media and we haven't had a lot of representation in the arts in
America," Ahmad says. Like the characters in the play, "We have to deal with
deaths in the family, we have to deal with children who don't want to do
what their parents want them to do."

Being Muslim, he says, "is not just about trying to enter paradise. We have
to live daily lives, too. I think art is a great way to show this,
especially theater."

Ahmad, 27; Syed, 30, and Alcodray, 42, were all born in this country. Their
parents were not: Ahmad's parents are from Pakistan, Syed's from Pakistan
and India, and Alcodray's from Lebanon.

"There are so many issues that need to be addressed" among American Muslims,
Ahmad says. "Being immigrants and children of immigrants and trying to
reconcile these two cultures... In addition, there is as much a human realm
to our lives as there is to anybody else's."

"If you don't define yourself, you run the risk of someone else doing it for
you," says Alcodray. He hopes the play will help in building what he calls
an "American Muslim identity."

As for why there has never been an American-Islamic musical, Alcodray notes
a reluctance among more conservative Muslims to embrace such an endeavor;
indeed, a small percentage may be offended seeing men and women sharing a
stage. For that reason, "The Poem of the Cloak" will have an all-male cast.

Meanwhile, the music in "The Poem of the Cloak" consists of verses from the
poem sung in different styles, says Syed. Because the poem is known so
widely, there are as many ways of singing it as there are Islamic cultures
and nationalities.

Syed already has singers lined up. He, Alcodray and Ahmad are seeking
actors. (Ahmad, in New York, will look at auditions on videotape.) "We would
like to have actors of all different backgrounds," not necessarily Muslims,
Syed says. "We are looking for American people."

And they're looking for pros. "We need people with professional
capabilities. There will be pay," says Alcodray. "My expectations as
director are high."

Auditions for actors are scheduled for 8-10 p.m. Jan. 6-7 in Studio A of the
Ford Center. For audition information call 810-531-0386. For ticket
information call 586-291-8890 or go to www.poemofthecloak.com
<http://www.poemofthecloak.com/> .

Contact MARTIN F. KOHN at 313-222-6517 or kohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx






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